Plastiq

These newcomers are ones to look for. As they say in their Spotify bio, their vision is “to bring forward thinking pop music to the people, through thrilling live performance, intricately crafted sonic tapestries and visceral mixed media visuals,” which translates into a world “where humans, animals, insects and microbes move together in a reimagined cosmos.” Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Well, their music gets even better after you listen to it.

Indeed, Plastiq’s cosmos is rich in textures and sounds. As they say, they explore forward-thinking pop, which translates into danceable tracks with unexpected twists in the production. They’re radio-ready and can cater to a broad audience, however, there’s always a je ne sais quoi that sets them apart from mainstream music. That’s probably what the jury of the SA Music Awards thought when they nominated the duo under the Pop category.

After the first two singles, Plastiq is now launching Demons, a song that lyrically “explores a dream-like state where the subject explores moving through a world without fear, feeling connected to and held tightly in the bosom of all biological life,” says the pair. “The verses are playful and speak of a character hop-scotching across a mossy rainforest floor, facing inner ‘demons’ and accepting them as lessons all whilst letting intuition and child-like wonder guide them. Quartz wanted to capture the serendipitous connection of dots that happens in an altered state of mind or in a dream,” they conclude.

For the otherworldly music video, they’ve joined forces with artist Capital Waste, who was already in charge of the music video of Killer, the pair’s debut single. In Demons, we see the members of Plastiq in high-fashion looks and bedazzled beauty and singing live while playing instruments in a rather industrial setting, which slowly zooms out to reveal a post-apocalyptic city. As they explain, “We are deeply fascinated with how we as humans interface with the multiple channels of realities in the world. Each of us has a nuanced and appropriate personality profile for each outlet. Our Instagram self, our email self, our professional work persona, our family self etc. We wanted to explore the idea of meeting a digital version of ourselves in the music video and being forcibly teleported into their world. We see two human emotions play out that might occur in this convergence - fear of the unknown or acceptance.”